CAIRO: During the past six months Egypt has witnessed 283 protests and 66 workers-related strikes due to a security clamp down on activists and privatization policies, says a new report.
The Land Center for Human Rights issued its half-annual report detailing the deteriorating status of Egyptian society during the first half of 2007. It s the 56th report of the center s Economic and Human Rights series entitled How anger generates change; protest is the way to victory.
The report states that during the last six months, Egypt witnessed an increasing number of workers disputes; 85 protests, 66 strikes, 15 demonstrations and 117 mass-gatherings.
Two main reasons behind such actions are privatization policies and delayed wages and workers’ benefits.
The report stresses the continuous violations carried out by security forces; clamping down on unions headquarters, unwarranted arrests of workers allegedly affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, consistent patterns of torture, and abuse of civilians inside police stations.
According to the report, the protests have shown the weakness of the unions and their submission to the current government. It warned that the unions continuous misrepresentation of the workers have resulted in pseudo-unions and independent bodies from which workers group operate in an attempt to guarantee their rights.
Out of a total of 283 protests, the public sector scored the highest with 112 among its workers.
This increase is an indication of fear state of fear the workers live with, said Taher Abu El-Nasr of Hisham Mubarak s Center for Human Rights. Abu El-Nasr told Daily News Egypt that the current violations directly affect the worker s income, consequently disrupting his ability to fend for himself and his family. This provokes despair which leads to protests and demonstrations, he explained.
Mohsen Al-Bahnesy, head of the legal unit at the Legal Aid Council agreed with him, saying that the current labor law, Article 12, which allows employers to fire and penalize employees at will, is the main source of troubles among Egyptian workers.
Add to that the current trend of temporary contracts that don t offer workers any benefits and one can understand the desperation of the workers, he explained.
Al-Bahnesy vehemently affirmed that the police force terrorize workers who go on strike or demonstrate, the latest being the post office workers who went on strike a couple of days ago and were threatened, along with their families, by state police.
The report highlighted some of the successful strikes which resulted in meeting various demands of Egyptian workers, mainly the metro workers’ protest, railroad drivers strike and textile sector s demonstrations that worked successfully because of the huge numbers of workers, well-organized protests and intensive media coverage.
Abu El-Nasr is not specifically an advocate of protests and marches but he admits that this method has led to noticeable success in guaranteeing some workers rights. We have been litigating the railroad workers rights for years in courts, he added, but we were only able to get back some of their rights when they went on strike this year.
The report called on the government, parliament and different civil society institutions to focus on the status of Egyptian workers and finding ways to improve it.
The government does not easily respond to workers demands for fear of more strikes, said Al-Bahnesy. Despite the nature of Egyptians who avoid protests, the current deteriorating economic status will force workers to continue to demonstrate.
The report also covered social and health issues. Researchers confirmed the increasing numbers of the unemployed and divorced. There was also an alarming trend of escalating violence against women. As for the health sector, Egypt is ranked first among countries suffering from liver-related diseases, with five million Egyptians suffering from Hepatitis C.
